


in flagrante delicto

by knave_of_swords



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Heist, Surprise Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:07:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28122111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knave_of_swords/pseuds/knave_of_swords
Summary: It was supposed to be a low level mission without much risk: Use Rhea to get into Cornelia's charity gala at Arianrhod, find her secretary's office, and steal the files they needed off of his computer. When things inevitably go wrong, Rhea and Edelgard need to do some quick thinking on their feet to avoid compromising their entire operation.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/Rhea
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48
Collections: Horny Void





	in flagrante delicto

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I feel like I need to explain some context to this since it's set right in the middle of a plot that doesn't actually exist in an actual fic. This is set in a heist/thieves AU someone initially wrote a short snippet of on the anon meme, and then started getting discussed further and I ended up writing this. 
> 
> The basic backstory here is that Edelgard and Hubert used to be vigilante hackers exposing Church abuses, but due to [handwaves some sort of backstabbing] she ends up working for Rhea, who wants to root the cult out of the Church and stop other Church abuses. She's also very different from what Edelgard had expected and actually kind of hot, to her endless (sexual) frustration. The heist team consists of all of the house leaders and their retainers. The mission in this fic is just a MacGuffin, because I haven't actually thought up a detailed plot for an extended heist operation for them to pull off.
> 
> Originally, I wanted to write a scene where Rhea first recruits Edelgard, in order to make a base for this fic to be clearly built off of, but writing is slow and I'm impatient. (I still might write that, maybe? We'll see.) But anyways, if you're wondering why Rhea and Edelgard are working together and don't hate each other, it's because I skipped past all the juicy character development in order to get to the sexy make-outs. Because really, that's what I care the most about.

"Uh, guys?" Claude's voice crackles in Edelgard's ear. "We have a problem."

"Spit it out, Claude," Edelgard hisses into her earpiece as she watches Rhea lean over the desk of Cornelia Arnim's secretary, Maximus Titanus, tapping keys on the keyboard as she finishes downloading what they need onto a flashdrive.

"You and Rhea are about to have company. Titanus and his entourage are heading your way. You have two minutes, tops."

"Shit," Edelgard swears, causing Rhea to glance upwards and give her a quizzical look. Right, Rhea isn't on comms. She isn't even supposed to be doing anything tonight, she was only supposed to be their team's ticket into Cornelia Arnim's exclusive charity gala. The perfect excuse to visit Arianrhod in order to lift certain key files off of their internal network. What they hadn't anticipated was the floor plan they had gotten being so wrong. Only Rhea, who had been to Arianrhod before and has the inner compass of a homing pigeon, was able to successfully get them where they needed to be.

"Titanus," Edelgard tells Rhea. "He's about to catch us  _ in flagrante delicto _ ." She scans the room, looking to see if there's anything they can hide behind. Nothing, of course. Edelgard walks behind the desk where Rhea is standing. It looks like the download finished, at least. If only they could teleport.

"I have an idea," Rhea says slowly, an inscrutable look in her eyes as she looks at her. Edelgard would almost call her tone hesitant if it had been anybody but Rhea speaking. "But you aren't going to like it." A terrible excuse-- as though Edelgard's comfort matters a whit when months of work is at stake. Edelgard doesn't care what Rhea is so reluctant about, she could not let this operation fail now.

"I will never forgive you," Edelgard hisses, "if you could have gotten us out of this--"

Rhea cuts her off, reaching under Edelgard's legs and hoisting her up so she's sitting on the desk. Edelgard is about to ask her what on earth Rhea thinks she's doing, when Rhea suddenly cups her face with her hands, pulling her towards her. It's like Edelgard's body almost realizes what's about to happen, and her lips part as she sucks in a breath.

When their lips touch, Edelgard's mind goes blank, every thought about the operation flying out of her head. Her body catches up before her mind does, her treacherous lips enthusiastically returning the kiss, eagerly letting Rhea's tongue into her mouth as Rhea gives her the filthiest kiss she's ever had. She hears a soft moan and desperately hopes that it's coming from Rhea.

Rhea's hands slide in opposite directions from Edelgard's cheeks, one falling to hers waist, and the other moving up the side of her head, pressing against her temple. Her fingers deftly lift Edelgard's earpiece off of her, and Edelgard can feel Rhea curl her hand around it, tucking it into her palm. Earpiece secured, Rhea runs her hand down Edelgard's back, burning against her body as she settles her hands and squeezes Edelgard's waist. Edelgard shivers as Rhea slowly traces her hands down Edelgard's hips, and then her ass, until her bare palms brush her thighs under the hem of the ridiculously short and gaudy dress that Rhea had insisted she wear in order to blend in. Her hips jerk and she unconsciously spreads her legs wider around Rhea's body as she moans again, louder this time and unmistakably hers.

"What the--" someone with a deep, unfamiliar voice exclaims from behind her.

Edelgard jolts. She hadn't heard the door to the office open. Rhea pulls away from Edelgard slowly, their kiss breaking with what must be the most obscene sound Edelgard has ever heard. She can feel herself start to flush, heat rising to her neck and head. They can't see her face, and she can't see them, but Edelgard is utterly mortified at being caught like this. Caught-- oh. This must be Rhea's plan. It's a gamble, of course, but maybe the sheer scandal of it being  _ Rhea _ of all people would distract them long enough for them to forget that Titanus' office door had been locked.

"Can I help you?" Rhea says towards Titanus and his company as she leans her chin on Edelgard's shoulder, somehow sounding perfectly composed. Like Titanus is the intruder, that he is the one in the wrong for intruding. There's some coughing, a clearing of a throat, before Titanus collects his bearings.

"This is my office," he snaps. "What are you doing here?"

Edelgard tenses, but Rhea just leans forward, pushing her hands further up-- Oh. Rhea's hands had gotten underneath her dress, palms against the very top of the backs of her thighs, just under her ass. Well, against her ass now. Edelgard is certain that her face must be bright red. She clings to Rhea, hoping that Rhea won't need her to say anything.

"Oh," Rhea says with a note of surprise in her voice, as though she was only just now realizing where they were. "Well. We got a little... caught up, and didn't realize." Rhea pauses. Edelgard's heartbeat, already pounding in her chest, somehow manages to increase its pace even more. This is it. This is the moment where they see if they're going to be able to get away without suspicion. "I suppose we should take this as our cue to head home."

"Please," Titanus coughs. "Just... get out." Relief floods Edelgard; Rhea's plan worked.

Rhea slowly, almost regretfully, pulls her hands out from underneath Edelgard's dress and takes a step back. Edelgard slides forward off the desk, standing on unsteady legs. It's the adrenaline, she tells herself. No other reason. Rhea holds Edelgard's hand as she stumbles forward, trying to pull her dress down from where it had gotten hiked up, and doesn't let go as she strides confidently towards the door where Titanus and his assistants were. Edelgard follows her, her eyes glued to the floor. Titanus and his assistants stand aside for them to exit.

It isn't until they turn the corner down the hall that Rhea lets go of Edelgard's hand. Without a word, she hands Edelgard the earpiece that she had kept out of sight. Edelgard doesn't let herself think about the past few minutes as she fiddles with the comms and then puts it in her ear again. She would think about that later. Right now, they had to finish tonight's mission.

"We got out," she says into her earpiece after clearing her throat. Silence on the other end of the line. And then--

"What.  _ The fuck _ . Was that?" Claude asks incredulously. Heat returns to Edelgard's face as she realizes that the rest of the team must have heard at least some of what had happened. She's not going to be able to look any of them in the eye for a week.

"We got what we came for," Edelgard says in a clipped voice, ignoring Claude's question. She glances over at Rhea to confirm, who nods and shows Edelgard the flash drive in her palm. Good. Edelgard had forgotten about the flash drive in the heat of the moment. "And now Rhea and I are heading back," she continues. "It would be too suspicious for us to stay on the premises now. Sorry Dimitri, Hilda." Those two would have to wait out the evening, until the event was over; all four of them leaving at once would draw attention.

"Excellent," Hubert says over the comms, to Edelgard's relief. He must have wrestled the microphone away from Claude. He was certain to have questions for her, but at least he wouldn't ask them in front of everyone else. "We'll be waiting for you back at Garreg Mach for your debriefing." Which meant that Hubert doesn't expect Edelgard to be on the comms anymore, thank goodness. Edelgard was not going to entertain any discussion about what had happened in the office over the radio.

Edelgard and Rhea walk towards the exit together in silence, but Edelgard can't stop glancing at Rhea. Where had Rhea learned to kiss like that? How was she able to be so levelheaded back there? And how is she still so calm now? Edelgard's heartbeat is still roaring in her ears, and she can still feel exactly where Rhea had grabbed her ass.

"What?" Rhea asks in an admused voice, having noticed Edelgard's staring. "Did you think that just because I'm an unmarried woman who works for the church, I'm a virgin?" How Rhea always knows what she's thinking, Edelgard may never find out.

"Yes, actually," Edelgard begrudgingly admits after a moment's pause. Rhea laughs, which irritates Edelgard more than it should considering that Rhea had just saved both of their asses. 

"You aren't going to believe me, but I've actually mellowed out quite a bit over the years." Rhea is right; Edelgard finds that very difficult to believe. 'Mellow' isn't exactly the word she would use to describe Rhea. It was the opposite, really, of how Edelgard  _ would _ describe her-- aloof, demanding, and has a vindictive streak.

"But that's a story for another day," Rhea says as she grabs Edelgard's hand again. Edelgard instinctively tries to pull her hand away, but Rhea's grip holds her fast. Which is a good thing, actually, Edelgard realizes a moment later when a valet springs up from his chair to greet them. It would be sloppy of them to not maintain their cover right here. So Edelgard steps closer to Rhea as she speaks with the valet, and leans against her after the valet leaves to go fetch Rhea's car.

"You took that better than I expected, to be honest with you," Rhea says, breaking the silence between them. 

"It's not like I hate you anymore," Edelgard says. "I can be a professional." Professional. That was what that kiss was. And the ass grab. 

"Oh, that wasn't what I meant," Rhea says lightly. Edelgard frowns. 

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" she asks. There's some sort of trap here, she knows, but as always, Rhea knows exactly how to bait her into responding anyways. 

Of course, that's the exact moment at which the valet drives up with Rhea's car. Edelgard suppresses an irritated huff. Damn that woman and her preternatural ability to always get the last word. At least they're finally leaving this damned place. 

Edelgard climbs into the passenger seat, and Rhea turns her key in the ignition. Soon enough, they're driving away from Arianrhod, and Edelgard can't help but feel a knot untwist in her stomach. They had gotten away. Dimitri and Hilda are still there, so they don't know how clean of an escape it's going to be, but they got what they came for.

Rhea doesn't talk again as she drives back to Garreg Mach, so Edelgard follows her lead and quietly tries to sort out her thoughts for their imminent debriefing. She can not appear anything less than levelheaded. If only the vivid memory of Rhea kissing her would stop replaying over and over in her head. It had lit a fire inside of her, and it feels like she's burning from the inside out as it tries to escape from her. Edelgard can't deal with this right now. She decides to pack all of those emotions and thoughts into a locked mental box in the back of her head to unpack later. Later probably being later tonight, with a hand between her legs as her body aches to be touched again. 

Right now, though, Edelgard has to focus on the operation. Why had their plans gone so wrong? Did they have a rat? It couldn't be anybody in their immediate team, Edelgard is certain of that, but it could be someone hovering in Rhea's orbit. Hanneman? Tomas? Any investigation that she-- well, Hubert-- conducts will have to be discreet. Edelgard almost succeeds in momentarily forgetting about the kiss when Rhea speaks again for the first time since they got in her car.

"I want to warn you," she begins, "that there might be certain... consequences to our method of escape tonight." Well. Wasn't  _ that _ foreboding? Edelgard can't tell if she's being actually warned, or threatened. "There are two ways things could go. The first is that Titanus and his assistants tell no one about our tryst." Heat rushes back to Edelgard's cheeks. Of course Rhea has to word it like that. "The other way..." Rhea hesitates. That certainly isn't something she sees from Rhea very often. "The other way things could go," Rhea starts again, "is that we are tomorrow's headline in the tabloids."

The weight of her words press down on Edelgard as she feels her stomach drop. She had thought that the fallout of tonight would be limited to their team. Which would still be an ordeal of its own, but is nothing compared to becoming a very public scandal. Rhea is a prominent public figure, and works high up in the Church to boot. Her having any sort of romantic affair-- let alone with a woman-- would be a scandal. Sneaking off from a party-- a charity gala, no less-- to fuck a woman decades younger than her on top of someone else's desk? That would be the story of the year for those horrible rags.

"It's alright, Edelgard," Rhea says, interrupting Edelgard's thoughts. "I know how to handle the press. I mentioned my past earlier, didn't I? I've dealt with much worse." The weight pressing down on Edelgard lifts, just a bit. "I don't think you'll be identified," Rhea continues, "but if you are, the resources at our disposal will make it easy for you to hide until it all blows over. I just wanted to warn you."

"Thank you," Edelgard says. She takes a deep breath and then exhales slowly. "I appreciate the warning." Edelgard turns her head to look out the window, and is taken aback to see that they're almost at Garreg Mach. She steadies herself, something Rhea apparently notices.

"Relax, child" she assures Edelgard. Normally, Rhea calling her 'child' stings like a slap to the face, but here it's oddly comforting-- a caress instead of a slap. "You performed excellently tonight." Damn Rhea and damn her terrible ability to read Edelgard like she's an open book. She's sure that her face is turning pink again at the praise. At least Rhea can't see. "I made the decision back there in the office." Rhea doesn't need to specify  _ which _ decision. "I will take full responsibility for any repurcussions it might have had, both in our team and outside of it." Rhea parks the car, having finally arrived at Garreg Mach. "Now," she says with a teasing edge to her tone, "are you ready to face the rest of the team?"

Edelgard braces herself. She has to face the others eventually. She's mortified right now, but it won't linger for very long. They're all adults, even Hilda is, despite how she acts sometimes. They could hardly tease her very well or for very long anyways, not when Rhea was the one who initiated the kiss. Edelgard steels herself as she opens the car door.

"I'm ready," she says. "Let's go debrief."

**Author's Note:**

> I pulled up the map in AM where you fight Cornelia to see if there were any other named units that I could use for her secretary here, and there weren't, but the mech things she used in battle were called Titanus. And I was like, hey that works as a last name for this throwaway underling character! So that's why his name is that, if anybody was wondering. 
> 
> Link to the (very good) anon meme thread that started it all!: https://fe3h-anon.dreamwidth.org/6037.html?thread=27558293#cmt27558293


End file.
